


Gloxinia

by lilacnightmares



Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Another Story (Mystic Messenger), Arguments, Choi Saeran Route, Elixir of Salvation (Mystic Messenger), F/M, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, MC has loved everyone, Mutual Pining, Recovering Choi Saeran, Reset Theory (Mystic Messenger), V | Kim Jihyun's Route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:42:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23928577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilacnightmares/pseuds/lilacnightmares
Summary: They had lived countless lives over and over again without pause. What happens when they wake up and remember everything? Will it change anything? Or will it destroy them and the RFA in the process?  Reset Theory.Work from Tumblr.
Relationships: Choi Saeran/Main Character, Choi Saeran/Reader
Comments: 12
Kudos: 48





	1. Chapter 1

## Chapter One 

* * *

It felt odd, MC thought. 

Something was on the tip of their tongue but they simply couldn’t place that thought. It was if they knew something that they couldn’t know. But, what was it that they couldn’t know and why couldn’t they recall the thought? This happened time from time but normally they would ignore it and carry about with their business but today it felt like that itch was stronger. 

Déjà vu could happen to anyone, so they merely turned their head back onto their phone as they chatted amicably with the RFA. 

Jumin and Zen were going back and forth about something again and MC couldn’t hold back the laughter from their lips as they did so. Zen was tired of Jumin making cat project after cat project and spilling it all over the chatroom. Jumin paid him no mind whatsoever and only chuckled at that, letting Zen groan all he wanted. 

It sort of felt one-sided, but Jumin always played back with him. 

Even if it seemed like they didn’t get along very well, MC could tell right off the bat that they cared about each other. It felt the same way whenever MC saw Jaehee gushing over Zen and how much she seemed to support him with such intensity, or when MC was around when Seven was teasing the heck out of Yoosung to torment him. 

As a matter of fact, each member of the RFA cared about each other as if they were a family, and MC had noted that the more that they spoke with them and saw how they acted. This, being the game that Ray had given MC to play. 

It felt oddly realistic for just a simple game. It felt more like MC was chatting to real living and breathing people most of the time. This software… had to be advanced, after all. MC could make phone calls and prompt however and whoever they wanted, alongside the chatting feature. 

This was why MC sort of understood why his team had been trying to hide it. This would revolutionize this type of gaming, and even other types of gaming if they were able to do it right. 

To think that MC would be able to talk to someone like this as if they were a real person like themselves? Amazing! MC simply gave him the credit for working so hard with the team of people that he must have had at a place like this. It took a lot of work to make something feel so flesh and bone. 

MC admired him for that. 

He was a sweet soul, and so very gentle as far as MC could see from their vantage point. 

He may not have always known what he was doing when it came to social cues or understanding how to make friends, but he was always so very kind to MC and on his best behavior. Ray treated MC like royalty and it brought a smile to their face. Ray also worked himself to the bones of his fingertips all the time. 

It didn’t seem very fair that he was always caught up in his work. 

For some reason, MC had this gut feeling that he had always been that way. He had always worked himself into the ground. Thinking of being stuck in that room all day long. That feeling made their stomach twist into a knot. 

Why did that bother MC so much? 

Why did their stomach feel sick whenever they thought about him working in that lonely dark room all by himself? Though, as concerned as they were for him, MC also worried for the one and only Jihyun Kim, or V, as the character model suggested. 

Out of every member of the RFA, the so-called leader was fraught with the most insecurities and secrets that had to be unlocked. Ray didn’t seem to care for him or for Seven, the other mysterious figure. 

But, if MC wanted to play this game to the very best that they really could do, wouldn’t it be much better to take the hardest path to help Ray understand what bugs he needed to fix in his programming? MC thought that it was worth it. He had put so much faith into them and MC wanted to do their very best for him. 

So, when V came into the chatroom to speak with everyone again, MC entered without a moment of hesitation. 

They’re going to play this game to the best of their abilities. 

All MC had to do is ease back into their chair and let themself get close to these people as if they were their real friends. It wasn’t going to be very hard. 

It had only been a couple of days but it felt like they had known the RFA for years. This feeling was one that they had not felt before, MC thought. Their chest burned with excitement as MC spoke more and more with V and got to know him the best that they could. 

Yet, the closer that MC found themself growing to him, the more danger that would come their way. MC didn’t know why, but they had a sinking feeling in their stomach… even as V spoke to MC with such concern for their sake. MC liked talking to him. He was a gentle soul but it was clear that he had a lot of pain in his mind.

There was always this sense that he was holding back with MC, not saying everything but never saying too little. 

MC worried for his sake. 

He seemed so caught up in trying to help everyone around him that he didn’t even think to consider himself. MC was going to make him see otherwise, no matter what it took and no matter how hard that it was. 

After all, Ray had said that things could be reset, even if it might have been a lot of trouble to deal with. A restart wasn’t a bad thing, right? But, MC was going to focus on the road that they were taking now. MC felt like they were doing the right thing as far as they could tell. 

The story was progressing and things seemed to be going as they should. That feeling in their stomach still threatened to bubble up, though, no matter what MC tried to do. 

What was this sensation and why did it feel so strong? 

404

Things had shifted drastically in a matter of days. 

The RFA had turned out to be living, breathing people, and the game that they thought they were playing had been nothing more than a long-winded con to trick someone into getting the RFA to crack and reveal their secrets to the Mint Eye. The Savior was their founder, who had supposedly died months earlier only to reveal herself to you. 

You had no choice but to hear the woman out after you had gotten close to V, as you wanted to know and understand how all of this had happened in the first place. Her explanation wasn’t anything that aligned with what you had heard from the others, which was to be expected but finding the answer to your questions was next to impossible. 

Ray hadn’t even been able to see you since Rika had taken your hand and considered it her personal business to tend to you. 

After days of being trapped in the stronghold with Rika for days on end, she had finally led MC out of her chambers and walked through the interweaving hallways until they walked down a set of stairs and into a damp room with nothing but stone and cobble. The light slowly illuminated the scenery but it was still low, as if by a dim candle. 

And it wasn’t until they stood in front of a set of bars that MC realized, Rika had taken them down here to see V. 

“Hello. What a good night to punish a traitor, isn’t it?” 

V looked to be in bad shape. His chest ragged with breaths and his mint eyes glossy as if he had been taking something that had made him ill. MC couldn’t stop their gasp as the door to the cell opened and they could approach him, “V! Are you okay?” 

As they rested their hands against his shoulders, he didn’t even respond.

Rika tsked, clicking her tongue in disgust. “Hmm. I didn’t expect to see you like this so soon tonight. He doesn’t even seem to recognize me… hm, Ray must have drugged him much more than I thought. What a shame. I told him to go with a small dosage… just enough that he could speak to me. This may not be as fun as I thought that it would be.” 

MC stood up straight and looked back at Rika, the fear evident in their eyes as they heard that last word. “...What? What drug?” 

“It’s the elixir of salvation, of course. Simply put, it causes your brain to produce an excess of dopamine. You feel happy and energetic for a while but you can suffer from hallucinations if you take too much, like this, for example,” she gestured down at V who was crumpled on the floor in a heap like a dirty dog. 

“The elixir works like magic on people. It lets me do as I please… not elegant or democratic, but sometimes, things must work this way. Fear not, I don’t believe you are in need of this, right?”

MC didn’t respond. They just turned their head to look back at the man on the floor in front of them. He had tried to get them out of this place. He had tried everything he could do and he had been hurt. 

Did Ray hurt him? Rika ordered Ray to hurt him? What had been happening while they were stuck with this woman? 

Rika merely sighed. She shrugged her shoulders as if to say, what can you do, and looked back at MC with a frown. “If this is how V has turned out with the elixir… he might as well just die before I do anything. I can’t give you a choice like this.” 

“The coordinator…” a croak came from the floor down below. “You need… to run…!” 

“Who was he calling just now…?” Rika’s voice grew dangerous thick as she looked down at the man in front of you.

Against their better judgment, MC tried to speak to him and see if there was clarity in his eyes again, or just a hint of recognition.“V-V? It’s me, I’m here!” MC told him, hands meeting his arm where he gazed up at them. 

He managed to look at them, but then his head lowered as he wheezed and coughed, desperate to end the pain. “This place is… dangerous.” 

His words only provoked Rika more, “You’re the only one in danger here! I’m not going to let you hurt this person as you hurt me, You traitor. You liar! You deceiver! You will testify, right? Show this ghost how well I’ve been treating you, MC.”

“Rika, please. you need to stop this,” V spoke again, his time his voice was growing in strong confidence. He took a moment to breathe and catch his breath again. “Rika, please… our love… obsession… should end… with me. I can’t let… them… get caught up… Aaah…” 

Rika’s own breath quickened. There was this look in her eyes like a deer caught in a trap. She looked stunned but it was washed away from her seething anger that held no bounds. 

“V, there is no such thing as our love. I am me. I don’t care about you. I never cared! I’m just doing what I want…! Now, MC! Tell him. Tell him what I’ve done for you. Make him suffer! It’s what he deserves! You know how afraid and stressed I am because of him. You know why I’ve become the devil I am. You know everything. Tell the traitor… tell him.” Rika demanded.

Her eyes were desperate. It was like this was her last chance to prove something that even she did not know she wanted.

In front of MC was a woman that was hurting just as much as she was hurting the others around her and this cycle of pain was solving nothing. Nobody here was going to win if things continued in this manner. Her side, their side… 

There was no side for MC here. 

All they saw were people that needed help. 

MC shook their head, “I understand your pain… but you need to control this devil within, Rika. It’s hurting you just as much as it’s hurting the ones you’re upset with. This isn’t going to make you feel better.” 

Rika’s voice caught in her throat and a bitter laugh escaped her as her panic rose, and she started to crumble. “I thought. I thought you understood me! Are you trying to kill my devil?! MC… you didn’t choose me. You’re going to choose V…?” 

V stiffened against their hold and coughed, “MC… you need to run. It’s not safe… to stay with Rika.” 

Rika’s bitter laughter went quiet, deadly quiet. Then, she spoke through that silence that only consisted of V’s desperate gasps of air that he could swallow, “V, MC as well… you’ve chosen them… each other… traitors... MC, and V… you’re all the same. You’re all the same! No one will ever truly understand me!”

“Rika…” MC trailed, eyes wide as Rika clutched her arms together around her torso tightly as if to comfort herself. 

“Rika, don’t… don’t do this,” V repeated himself, but it was for naught. 

He was now looking squarely at the woman that he loved, he once loved so very dearly, and even now, he cared about her well-being as much as someone could. 

Her glowering gaze rested on MC. 

“This is where I belong! Hahaha… You made a mistake when you came here, MC. I’m the devil! I am my monster. Nothing but darkness exists inside of me. Dreaming of happiness is a luxury that I don’t deserve! There’s nothing but fear, hatred, and sorrow within me! Nobody will betray me inside of this darkness! If I step outside… I’ll die. I… I already knew that.” 

“Rika…?” 

Her shriek echoed throughout the dungeons that they all resided within. “Don’t call my name with that filthy mouth!” 

V had sat up on his own but it was obvious that he was barely keeping himself together to have this conversation, “Rika, think about… our memories. When we used to be obsessed with each other.” 

“Obsessed? That’s a funny expression!” Rika spat. Her green eyes couldn’t have been colder at that moment. “We were never obsessed with each other. I was the only one that was obsessed. You don’t even know what that is! You know nothing of endless love for another!”

“Rika… I… I was obsessed with you. I thought I had to… love you unconditionally,” he trailed off, as he was unable to stop himself. “I was telling you that I love you when your soul didn’t want it. I was… I was obsessed with you!”

Rika’s laughter had grown once again but now her eyes were threatening to spill over with thick white tears. “Hahaha… so you’re trying to tell me you never loved me, you were just obsessed with me!” 

“Rika… I did love you,” V said, softly. It was filled with sincerity that even MC could not deny the way he said it. It made their heartache. 

It seems these words are a spark to a fire that isn’t going to stop. This small ember that had been starting to burn was now a blazing inferno that would cover everything in its wake. Rika sucked in a desperate breath of air that came in and out haphazardly. 

“Don’t change your words! You said what you said to me! Don’t turn back on it now, you liar! You’re saying that you don’t love me, that you never loved me! All of that attention you poured into me was an obsession, and you didn’t love me at all! You said that you loved me like the sun! You said you’ll love me even if I test you, even if I ruin you! It wasn’t loving me?! That was an obsession?! Tell me, which one was it?” 

Neither V nor MC moved as Rika broke down into a million pieces in front of the both of them as her gaze fell from him onto the ground. 

Her sobs were the sounds of desperation. 

“Was it all lies? Was it all a game to you from the start? Did you ever love me or were you obsessed?! Did you come here because you love me or because you were obsessed with me?! Was it all lies from the start, V?! Tell me! I demand you tell me the truth! You never loved me in the first place?! Obsession… obsession!” her voice echoed against the walls as she slowly turned to beg with the air for an answer that she wanted to hear.

Fists pounding against the ground like a child throwing a fit. 

Rika sank to the ground as she hit her knees and her fingers dug into the floor underneath them as she shouted and lost herself, “You said you loved me! You said you loved me! You said you loved me! You said you loved me! You said you loved me! You said you loved me! You said you loved me! You said you would love me like the sun!” 

Neither of them moved. 

Rika had lost her wits and she wasn’t even aware of anyone else in the room at this point. She was hurting. She had done wrong but this woman broke into pieces as if she were made of glass instead of brick. It made MC’s heart feel sick and they wished that it wouldn’t have turned out that way but there was nothing that they could do to change what had happened. 

A couple of tense moments past but they heard a strange sound come from behind their back all of a sudden. A hand rested against their shoulder and a voice rang through their eardrums, “Shh. Quiet. You're MC, right? Don’t answer. I said be quiet. We’re getting out of here. Okay?”

That sounded a lot like…

MC nodded their head, providing that they understood what was happening. 

Seven guided them through what to do, “Pick him up. Now, so that she won’t notice. We don’t have a lot of time.” 

MC followed through his orders. They managed to haphazardly pull the mint-haired man across the room until they had him in Seven’s grasps. He looked down at him with a bit of disdain in his eyes but it was torn up with a lot of other feelings. He hoisted him up on his back the best that he could and then, they were moving as fast as they could through the hallways. Mint Eye had a floor plan that didn’t make any sense at all. 

Seven seemed to have figured it out, somehow, so they were out of that building and into the grass within a couple of minutes. 

“Luciel…?” V eventually croaked out. “I’m sorry…” 

Seven almost sighed in relief when he heard the sound of the RFA’s leader’s voice speak back to him but he paid no mind to him. There was going to be a lot that had to be spoken about in the future but for right now, they had to get out of this place.

MC glanced back at the building behind them as they hurried through the treeline, “Wait, what about the hacker? Seven, we can’t leave him behind. He’s being abused and manipulated as well!” 

The redhead grit his teeth, “It’s no good. We’ve got no time. We can come back for him later, but right now, we have to focus on V.”

404

It had been a few days since MC found themselves in the safe house with Vanderwood, Seven, and V. It had not been a pretty situation to take care of V’s injuries and defend themselves from an attack. They had promised MC they wouldn’t hurt the hacker but they were fighting him while they said that. 

They spent much of this time trying to focus on V. It was hard when he had been laid out cold most of the time for his own pain’s sake. The elixir had messed him up badly and the painkillers evened out everything else. MC tried to make sure that he was as comfortable as he could be but that was all that they could do. 

Being around the hackers made them uneasy, and that also another issue that they were dealing with. It didn’t help that they were fighting with Ray… going back to help him was one thing, but fighting with him after the promise to help? 

Ray was still back there, and he was not okay. 

MC stepped outside to get some air after the sun had gone down and the moon had started to rise again. They stared at the treeline and sighed. Their life had really gone from zero to one hundred without warning. It wasn’t anything that they expected but they had to make do with what they could. 

They just wanted a moment to think.

What could they do? They weren’t all that strong. Everyone had been taking care of them from the start and they had done nothing but get in the way and cause trouble over and over again. It wasn’t their drama, to begin with, but they were involved now. 

They couldn’t even protect Ray after promising that they would never let him go. That was what hurt the most of all, MC thought. 

They sat down in the grass and started up at the moon as they took in a breath. They had wanted to stargaze with Ray. They had never got the chance to ask him to do that. 

MC lost themself in their thoughts until their phone rang. They lifted their head up and gazed at the photo on the phone. 

Ray! It was from Ray. They immediately picked up and put it next to their ear as his voice came through the other side, “Thank god… It’s working. You know, the weather is nice today. So, I wanted to be able to talk to you… about something important. I hope I’m not bothering you.” 

MC shook their head, incredulous. “Important? You can tell me anything, Ray. You’re not bothering me. I wanted to talk to you. I’ve wanted to see you. I’m sorry I couldn’t find you before they took me. Please. Talk to me.”

“But, I feel so nervous to say it…” Ray trailed off. 

It was quiet for a moment.

“Listen, I… to be honest with you, MC. When you were in that room… those days were the happiest moments of my life. That’s the only memories that sparkle so pure with not a spot of betrayal. That moment is the shiniest moment in me. I will never forget how you trusted and waited for me… all those times, your voice… I really wanted to tell you that, MC,” he said, quietly. 

Why did that sound like a goodbye letter? MC stared at the stars overhead and pursed their lips. 

"Ray…” they say, uneasy. “What’s going on?” 

Ray didn’t seem to notice that they were speaking or asking him a question, he was so caught up in whatever he wanted to tell them that he couldn’t stop talking. “I miss you so much. I’ve said that a lot, haven’t I? I miss you so much, so these words would just come out without even thinking. But, in the end… we couldn’t even see each other one last time.”

MC’s heart was beating fast against their ribcage. They missed him too. They hadn’t wanted to leave him behind in the first place. 

“The last moment we were together… was when I introduced you to my Savior, wasn’t it? It’s only been a few days since that happened but it feels like years have passed. Now I’ll never get to see you again… will I?” Ray’s throat was racked with heavy sobs but he tried to hold them back. 

MC could hear the sorrow in his voice as he poured his heart out to them and they were too stunned to do anything to listen. 

Ray continued, “It’s all my fault… I’ve done wrong. I dreamed of living happily together here. I thought that one day that would come true if I just worked hard enough… but, it seems as though that dream wasn’t something I ever deserved.” 

No. 

No! 

MC never thought that way of him. They had thought that they would be able to be his friend and show him a world that he had never seen.

It hadn’t been all that thought out when they chatted to Ray about this and that, but that didn’t mean that they had given up on that dream because they weren’t in the same place anymore. 

They shut their eyes. 

“Ray… wait…” 

There was an odd sound in the background of the phone, it sounded like ticking or like hands hitting keys. 

“Though it was very brief, I even imagined going on a date with somebody I love… you know… that person that is more important to me than anything else in this world. Holding hands just so tenderly, giving warm hugs, and making lovely kisses… something like that. They are dreams too big for someone as pathetic as me, right?” his sobs had gone stiff. 

He was trying to keep himself together but it wasn’t working. That faint sound in the background of the phone was now more key to MC. It sounded like a voice counting down. 

Fifteen…

Fourteen… 

Thirteen… 

“You were… too good for me. You were a person too good for me, MC. Thank you for staying with me, even if it was briefly. I wanted to see you… one last time… I think even now that I’m sullying your time just for hearing how pathetic I sound now. But still, thank you for bearing with me all this time. I won’t ever see you again but, I’m glad that I could hear your voice one last time.” 

Six… 

Five… 

Four… 

MC realized what was happening at that moment. That countdown… that could only be for one thing and one thing alone. 

They bolted onto their feet and stared at the distance where the building of Magenta lay far on the horizon just out of sight but just close enough that they knew it was there. “Ray… please! Wait! Stop! I never wanted to leave you behind, I wanted you to come with me! They wouldn’t let me go and find you! I’ve always cared about you, Ray, I—” 

Ray’s voice was now in a whisper so soft that only they would be able to hear that sound, only they would know his final words. “I won’t ask you to remember me, MC. It doesn’t matter if you forget about me. I want you to be happy no matter what. You need to be happy… you must… my first, and last love.” 

Then, it happened. 

There was a righteous explosion in the distance so loud and so sky-high that MC could see the smoke and fire billowing into the skyline. They raised a hand to their lips as the sounds of a scream and then nothing came through their phone. MC dropped the device and it collided with the ground. 

MC stared at the sight, in horror, and then a scream ripped through their body. A flurry of visions poured through their mind all at once of a thousand lives they had lived, lives lived, love given, trust exchanged, and so much more. They saw everything and anything and then that saw Ray, except he wasn’t Ray. 

He was somewhere… someone else… he wasn’t dressed the same and he looked a little bit older than he did right now. His eyes were locked in pain and disgust and agony all at once as he lifted a gun and—

Nothing. 

Everything they had seen turned to a blank, they could remember nothing. Their body went slack against the ground and they passed out. 


	2. Chapter 2

## Chapter Two 

* * *

“Wait! Don’t go! Stop, I don’t want you to—” 

MC awoke with a start in bed that morning with their chest heaving up and down as if they had a nightmare of some kind. What was that? What had that feeling been? Who were they crying out to and why were they crying? 

Their vision rested on the ceiling that lay in front of MC as they realized that they were okay and that strange fear in their chest had been… whatever had just bothered them had been nothing more than a dream and they were safe. Why had the dream felt so real? Why had it felt like their heart was being ripped to pieces? 

Why?

“Huh…?” 

Raising a hand to their face, MC could feel the wetness as it stained their cheeks and where it had dried over in their sleep. 

They had had their share of bad dreams before in their past; Yet, they had never been so real that MC was forced to tears over it. This certainly wasn’t anything they would call normal. Shaking off that feeling as best as they could, MC reached for their bedside table and their hand brushed against their phone. 

MC lifted it up and unlocked it to see if they had any messages. Pursing their lips, MC blinked at the fact that there was nothing to respond to. Huh. That was strange. Shouldn’t there have been a message from… wait. 

A message from who, exactly? MC didn’t have a lot of friends to speak of and the ones that they did have didn’t reach out to them. They reached out to them to make a conversation. 

They put their phone down and rose from the bed to start their day. Something felt off about this but MC just couldn’t put their finger on it, but it might just be nothing. Maybe, it will come back to them later?

Either way, MC had to get to work and this dream would have to be put on the back burner until they had free time to spare on it. 

404

A message came out of their phone during their work break from a mysterious man that MC did not think they knew. MC had downloaded an app without thinking and then it sprang to life on their phone, giving them a chat window to speak through. The man explained to MC that he had a game that he was working on that he needed a tester for. 

It came with the added bonus of room and board for free. 

Now, MC knew that that was probably fishy but their job was literally the bottom of the barrel and it barely helped them scrape by each and every month. They were willing to try anything at this point and he made it sound really fun. So, they took the offer! 

Yet, the moment MC opened their phone to answer his phone call, a knot twisted in their gut. His voice was very gentle and steady. There was something about it that made their heart start to race quickly. 

"Hey, it's me, the one you were just chatting with." He said, “I figured it would be better to discuss this over the phone, after all, it’s hard to condense so much into a text conversation when something like this would be better explained by the tongue.” 

“Unknown?” MC asked and then felt like they had said that name before. “Oh, right. You said that you would call. I remember.”

He chuckles a little bit from the other end of the receiver, "Yes, that's me. I hope I didn't startle you too much... Your voice sounds so cute over the phone, I can't wait to meet you in person. But, I’m getting ahead of myself, aren’t I? As I said in the chatroom, I called you to explain this app, and I thought talking to you like this would make me sound more, credible.”

He begins to explain everything to MC that he wanted to say. It’s a dating sim, and it’s the kind of game that may or may not change how people think about how they should function. It’s a type of game that may subvert the genre with something fresh. 

The way that he speaks about it is very frank, and he believes MC to be the person that he’s been waiting for to try it out. He’s asked around to other people but nobody would ever hear him out as far as MC have. MC understands his plight. It isn’t easy to work a job like this when their boss wants to get things done so soon. 

Yet, by the time that MC finished their phone call with him and gave him their location so he could send someone their way, something felt very wrong. MC gripped their phone tightly as their chest began to feel tight and their head started to burn. There’s a hum behind the back of their eyes that burned like hell. 

MC let out a hiss in response to the pain and clutch at their head with their other hand. “Ugh…” 

A sudden and vicious feeling churns inside of their stomach and a memory… a feeling… or a voice… something hit MC like a bullet train and they can do nothing to stop it as it floods to the surface. 

“I wish that you would be kinder to yourself, Ray,” their own voice came through their mind out of the blue. “You've been working really hard on this project. I’m happy to work with you. You’ve made something amazing.” 

“Thank you for saying so,” there was a spark in his eyes that left MC feeling warm. He had the smallest smile on his face. “I have never had someone give me such warm compliments before. Is it bad of me to wish that I may hear you say something like that to me again?”

Their hands laced with his right away. MC couldn’t feel how warm or how cold his ways were, it was only the feeling of leather against their bare hands. The texture normally may have felt grainy but for some reason, it felt right.

“I’ll keep whispering these warm words to you until you see how amazing you truly are. I see someone in front of me that has worked very hard for a long time and I hope to one day see you believe in yourself as much as I believe in you,” MC says to him. 

There is a feeling of a breeze and the scent of flora all around them.

What… 

What was that? 

And, why did that voice sound just the programmer? 

404

They came to Magenta and started playing this game for a boy that MC now knew to be Ray, somehow his name escaped their lips when they first met, and he cocked his head to the side when he uttered it to him. 

His eyes were curious. 

As a matter of fact, MC was stunned by how easy his name flowed off their tongue. 

“How did you know my name?” he asks, lips curled into something of an amused smile as if he knew something that MC didn’t. 

“I don’t know,” MC answered, honestly. “I just felt like you were a Ray, I guess. Lucky guess. I guess that means we were meant to meet, huh?”

Ray doesn’t answer that at first. He grips the hand that still has hold of theirs. He nods his head, and that smile deepens. “I suppose so. I look forward to working with you. After all, You’re the first person to do exactly as I ask of you. I’m excited to show you a good time with my game, here, allow me to take you to your room.” 

And then, that strange feeling that MC had gone away for a little while. They didn’t have another sense of whiplash hit them as hard as it did before that. MC figured that it was just one of those weird mornings. 

Today was just one of those strange days that sort of made no sense, it happened time from time. Everything would revert back to normal as MC settled into their new space. 

Except… 

It kept happening. 

Every time that MC interacted with someone, they would get a jolt of a memory or a voice or a feeling. 

MC didn't know what was wrong with them but after the first couple of days of chatting with everyone, it had really started to scare them. They would know something about someone or say something that they should have had no way of knowing. 

Like, when MC started talking to Zen to ease him out of a fight with Jumin after MC popped into a chatroom with them, MC didn’t even know what they were fighting about but they mentioned to them: Are you guys really fighting about Elizabeth the 3rd’s photos again?

Nobody had even told MC about Jumin’s cat, yet. 

They had chatted with Yoosung once and found themself talking in circles about him being such a great gamer when he had never played a single game before. Yet, MC had clear memories of being in a room with him where he was playing a game, teaching MC how to work the motion controls. 

It even happened when MC was chatting with Jaehee. MC had offhandedly mentioned something about a coffee business… or was it a cafe? 

MC couldn’t exactly remember what it was that they said to her but she had no idea what MC was talking about on the phone. It may not have been correct but it sounded like something that they knew for a fact. MC spoke so casually about opening things up together in the morning as if they had lived together… 

That wasn’t the weirdest thing to happen to MC, either. As they were getting headaches a lot more often than they ever had before. 

When they were chatting on the phone with Seven about something late at night, he mentioned something to MC and suddenly, another headache overtook their head. MC grit their teeth and tried to ride it out as they had the first time this happened—

This time, however, they surged with a strong memory where MC stood in front of a redhead, with a warm smile on his face and a hand outstretched to them. The only thing that they could recall him saying was how he wanted to… marry… MC…?

MC brushed off his concerns when they came back, only to lie to him and say that they hadn’t really been sleeping well. Seven believed them, at least, they thought that he did since he did not push the subject.

Every time they interacted with someone, these feelings would churn up inside of them so much that they didn’t know what to do. It felt like they were seeing glimpses of a life that they had led or would lead or maybe it was something else? 

They weren’t sure but these visions felt so very real to them and they just couldn’t turn them off like a switch. MC would find themself crying about it without even realizing it. Over and over and over again until it felt like they weren’t able to breathe. 

It would happen even more with V. They didn’t understand why. The headaches would grow into a strong burn and their gut would twist into knots whenever they spoke to him or thought about him. MC would get the sensation that he was lying to them about things and then they would call him on it.

It made MC wary of him.

Even if it was a video game, even if they were just characters, it felt too real to ignore it. 

They felt much more warmth when MC was with Ray, but that warmth was also muddled with some intensity that frightened and delighted them. The feeling that they got whenever they were with Ray kept telling them that they needed to go.

MC didn’t want to leave his side. 

The more that they saw that Ray was in pain, they tried their best to remind him that he needed to take care of himself and that he should take more breaks but he never listened. MC seemed to know that he would do that, so they tried other ways to reason with him. It didn’t always work but it was the fact that would work every now and again seemed right.

Magenta, as he called it, didn’t seem like a great place. 

That became increasingly obvious the more time that MC spent with him. Yet, the day finally came that they were meant to join his group. They weren’t sure about that. They overworked him but at the same time, they wanted to stay close to him as much as they could. He assured MC that it wasn’t all that bad. 

So, MC listened as he came to their room and took them to the garden to talk about how they would join. He mentioned a sparkling liquid that would not taste well. He also promised that they would not have to take it like him, MC trusted him so much that he saw no reason in making them prove their loyalty. 

He gripped MC’s hand tight, and they knew, they knew whatever he was taking was hurting him so very much even if he wasn’t saying it. He explained to them the truth, a truth that they had slowly believed to be true given the memories that they had been receiving every other day since arriving at this place. 

MC just knew they were real. 

But, they were being… tricked by V? Was that why they were so wary of V? Was this why they were so uneasy around him? Their night together was cut short by V arriving in the garden and causing Ray to get into a catatonic state. His breath quickened as he lashed out at V, the fear in his eyes as clear as the moon. 

MC stepped in front of him as if to protect him, as V’s frown grew but he lowered his head and offered that he understood why they were doing this. MC was pumping with adrenaline the entire time and nothing made sense anymore. 

Ray had a brother, V had made a mistake, and this place was nothing but a confusing lie. 

What was real?

By the time Ray woke back up from his dread, he looked at them through tearful eyes and apologized for not being able to protect them from V. It was obvious that he was scared of getting hurt again and the last thing that he wanted was MC to get hurt the way that he had. 

MC hadn’t minded protecting him from his fears but this was something that he could not stop himself from feeling shame or guilt over. He shook his head through tears and took them back to their room. 

He didn’t stop saying anything but sorry to them. How ashamed he was. How he wanted to be strong for them in the way that they had been so nice to him. Ray left without letting MC even console his tears. 

They were left alone in that room all by themselves. 

MC took two steps into the room and suddenly collapsed onto the ground. 

Their head surged with one of those headaches but this time it enveloped their vision so strongly that they could see nothing but black. Their throat was wracked with a scream that no one would hear because this floor of the building was empty. 

They cried with unknown feelings that made them frightened. 

A flurry of feelings, memories, and sensations took over their body all at once. Lifetimes that they had lived, love that they had, feelings that they had shared with everyone, and saving one life after another over and over again. They had been with everyone in the RFA at some point and they kept reliving the same two weeks over and over again. 

Time after time, they would love someone and save them only to be ripped away from the end all the way back to the start. Yoosung, Jaehee, Zen, Jumin, Seven, and… even V.

They had loved all of them in one lifetime and they had loved them back. Each time, MC would start over the same way. 

Their eyes would meet their phone and they would come into contact with Unknown… Ray… Saeran… whatever name he was using at the time, whoever was in charge of his system at the time would always come and find them. 

He was the person that MC had been trying to help from the start. They had never been able to reach him. Even when they had loved Seven, and they had helped him... When they had finally gotten the chance to get close to him, their heart had been unable to reach him. 

They had wanted to go and save him from Magenta but neither Vanderwood nor Seven would let them go back. 

That’s when… 

That was when… 

The last flashback hit MC the hardest, as their throat had gone numb and their tears had all but dried up from overuse. 

MC could remember it clearly, the phone tightly in their hand, and the way they pleaded with him not to end his life only to hear the sounds of an explosion and a phone going dead as his last words haunted them for the rest of that timeline. 

“You need to be happy… you must… my first, and last love.” 

Everything. 

MC remembered everything. 

404

MC had been living the same two weeks over and over again. 

It wasn’t always the same thing and it wasn’t always easy. It always ended with them helping someone overcome some kind of problem they were having. MC had the memories now. They had the knowledge of the lives that they had led and what could happen if they weren’t careful. 

There had been hard times but at the same time, there had been so many moments where they made everyone smile. They weren’t even sure how many times they had lived through these days anymore but they had the information of at least fifty or so timelines. They could see things that they shouldn’t have known. 

MC may have been here at Magenta but in most of their lives in Rika’s apartment with the RFA members. They had known Ray as Unknown. Unknown was Saeran. Saeran was Seven’s twin brother who had been taken away by Rika before V could realize what had happened and put a stop to it. 

The person that they were with now, Ray, was a facet of that personality that they had met long ago. 

This person that they had wanted to help and protect but every time they tried to learn more about him, they would be denied that chance. Unknown had only been able to be removed when they had been with Seven. Even then he had done a lot of unspeakable things that would haunt him for the rest of his life until the end of his days.

MC’s body trembled at that notion and they feared it more than anything else. They refused to let Ray get hurt in that way. They were going to have to protect him from meeting that fate. 

What was worse, MC wasn’t even sure how to do that from their point in Magenta. The last life that they had led here had ended with Ray… dying. MC couldn’t let themself think further than that word as just the mention of his death made them break into a cold sweat. Their dreams every night were haunted by his passing. 

MC didn’t want him to die.  
  
MC didn’t want him to kill V. 

MC didn’t want Ray to suffer anymore. 

They refused to let that happen again. 

So, they took to messaging the RFA piece by piece with bits of information that they tried to weave in a code. They tried to let them know that something was wrong, that they needed to be saved, that they wanted them to find the location of Magenta, and that they were closer than they thought.

They did everything they could over the next two days. They tried everything that they could think of at the moment. Ray could see anything and everything in the messenger so they had to be careful of what they said, but at the same time, they had all the more reason to ensure that someone could rescue them. 

Not just MC, but Ray as well. 

Mint Eye was not a safe place. Ray was going to die here or lose himself to the devil that his Savior pushed onto him. 

Not even V or Seven understood what they were saying when they reached out to them. V just thought they were dodging the point by talking in circles to him. Seven thought they were trying to make games with him. 

It left MC fraught with tears. They may have had all the information they could ever need in their hands but they were powerless to use those powers. 

What kind of ability was this if they couldn’t even use that power to help the ones they cared about? What was the point if they could remember all of this? 

If they couldn’t save Ray… 

What did it even matter that they remembered? 

It left them struggling, and with the only other option that they had. They had to talk to Ray about leaving this place. 

So, when everything else had failed them, they began to slip in more talk with Ray about how wrong it was that he was working so hard and he never got anything in return. How he had to take that bitter elixir and how he had to follow orders or he would be punished over and over again, how they cared about him, how they saw him as a friend, and how important he was to them. 

MC wasn’t sure what was going to get through to him. 

Every time they had wound up speaking, most of it was them pleading with Ray to think about coming to see them so that they could make up in person. Ray would always say that he had more work to take care of and fearfully react if the MC dared to imply that they should leave this place. 

Yet, the more that they brought it up with him, the more that it seemed like his faith was starting to slip in paradise. 

He was scared, he was just so scared, but MC wanted him to know that they were with him no matter what. It was hard for them to know if it was even working at all. Their days consisted of trying to get help and trying to help Ray over and over again until their fingers wanted to blend from all of the typing they did. 

They had nothing to do but exist here in this strange point of knowing and unknowing. It all just fizzled ultimately until the night that MC felt as though they couldn’t take the pink walls of their room surrounding them any longer. 

They stashed their cell phone in their pocket and took the route of familiar hallways that they had traversed before until they found themselves standing in the garden. 

It felt like they could breathe again but there was still that dread in the back of their head. MC couldn’t do a lot about this but they were doing the best that they could with what they had. Maybe the plan would pay off sometime soon? 

Maybe someone would notice their cries for help instead of thinking that they were just talking in circles again. Their actions at the start of this timeline hadn’t been the best. Everyone assumed they were playing games like the 707 persona. 

Alongside not being able to be taken seriously, trying to find crafty ways to slide a message never went well. 

MC just let themself try to calm down. 

It worked for a bit but when they turned to go and return to their room, they found themself walking right into Ray. He stared at them with wide eyes, having not expected to run into them here. He immediately apologized, feeling ashamed of himself for the actions of the prior days in spite of the assurance from MC. 

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled, looking down at the ground. “I know you don’t want to be around me even if you aren’t saying it. Just let me go. You can enjoy your evening, MC.” 

MC shook their head to this. They grabbed onto his gloved hands before he could make a break for it and leave. “No, Ray. I’m not upset with you. I never was mad. I’ve been wanting to see you more than anything.” 

Ray was startled by this fact. But, they both went deeper into the garden away from the building in case anyone would notice them. 

MC figured it was a safer plan for him in case he really wasn’t supposed to be out at that moment. They did their best to talk to him and mention everything that they had before. They held onto him tightly as they reminded him that he was working himself too hard and that MC didn’t think he was happy. 

He shook his head, trembling where he stood. “MC… we can’t… we can’t talk about this. I want to protect you from the elixir. Paradise isn’t perfect but... Please, have faith in me. I know that that is a lot to ask of you. I don’t care if you turn me in for it, either. I just want you to be safe and happy. I won’t have to work like this forever, the Savior promised.” 

“Ray, hasn’t she always promised you something and gone back on it?” MC whispered, as gently as they could. “Who is to say that she doesn’t go back on her promise? She already makes you stay working after you’ve taken the elixir and it clearly hurts you. We… you… you can’t stay here forever. I’m scared you’re going to die.”

“I don’t want you to be hurting anymore. I want you to be happy… I want you to be able to do what you want, not what your Savior may want. I know that you and she must share some similar thoughts but… haven’t you ever wanted something for yourself? You’ve never ever been selfish before in your life. Please, please… consider what I said. I can’t stand to see you hurting like this, Ray, I love you.”

Ray lifted his head, and although he didn’t realize it, tears had started to pour from the corner of his mint eyes. It was as if those words had made him unsure of what to do with himself. He was just looking at MC.

MC couldn’t stop themself. They cupped his face in their hands. They inched just a bit forward and brushed their lips against his. 

He didn't react at first, as he was too startled, but his hands that had reached up to grasp at MC’s forearms went slack after a moment of stiff hesitation. Eventually, he softened up and returned the kiss but it couldn’t have lasted longer than a couple of seconds in total. 

When MC pulled back, his eyes were wide and his cheeks were turning pink. “Was… was that a punishment…?” he murmured at first. “Why… why would you kiss me?” 

MC just kept their eyes trained on his. “Because, I love you, Ray. I want to be with you and I want us to get out of this place together. I want to live my life with you and I want you to be happy… I need you to know how much you mean to me. I would do anything for you, and I know you have done the same for me. Please, think about leaving… with me.” 

Ray lifted his sleeve to his eyes and rubbed away some of his tears as fast as he could but it was obvious that the kiss had left him feeling out of touch. He looked at the building of Magenta and then he looked back at MC right after. There was a fear in his eyes but there was also some kind of excitement in them as well.

“I can’t… I can’t be selfish,” he said, at first. 

MC’s heart started to sink. 

“But,” Ray said, quietly. “I would do anything for you. I care about you so much. If you care about me this much… I don’t… I don’t know… I just don’t know, MC. I need… I need to think about this, MC. I can’t just leave… it’s not… it’s not safe for me out there and… I’m scared.”

MC held tightly onto his hand and stared at him with as much confidence that they could muster in their bones. “Ray, you’ve been protecting me all this time. Let me protect you now. Just have some faith in me. I promise. I promise things will be okay.”

The point is made. 

MC and Ray had to separate after that and go back to the lives that they were leading for the time being but MC felt like they had managed to get through to him. It was a start and they wanted to believe that they could be able to do this. They didn’t know what they were going to do but they were sure as hell going to do all they could. 

They believe that all is well. 

Yet, not even two hours later there is a call on their phone from a frantic Ray that is talking in circles and not making sense. It sounded like he was in pain and like he had taken more elixir, MC couldn’t tell. He was pleading for someone to make the pain stop and how badly he wished that MC was there for him. 

It wasn’t until he whispered that they had taken him to be punished for talk of “leaving”, that MC realized their mistake. 

Somebody had heard them talking and turned Ray in for it, and now they may never see him again. 

MC grips their phone tightly and tries to call V. They can’t get through to him. They try to call Seven. They can't go through to him either. It’s like the call was being jammed or like someone flipped a switch and it turned all of the communication off. They stare, in horror, at their phone as they realize that yet again—

They are powerless to protect the ones that they love.


	3. Chapter 3

## Chapter Three 

* * *

Minutes turned into hours, and hours turned into an endless blur of unknowing. 

MC stared at the ceiling as they thought about what they were supposed to do from this point. It was impossible to get out of Magenta, even knowing their way out of the place wasn’t going to give them reprieve from a camera or guards. There was no guarantee that they would be able to do it, and they couldn’t just leave this place without Ray.

They hadn’t heard from V, and the last that they had checked, he hadn’t been in Mint Eye, he had been back out on the outside meeting with his father. The signal at this place was absolutely the worst kind. 

They had remained cut off from the RFA for a long time and by the time that the chats came back online—

MC couldn’t tell them a damn thing. 

There was no telling if someone was still watching the messenger while Ray was away, and they knew that it was highly likely that eyes were on them if they flipped the switch for their game like that. 

They just had to lie to the RFA and say that they had taken a longer nap than they expected. It pained them to do that. Yoosung and Zen were rather worried about them after their antics as of late. 

They were suspicious. 

MC couldn’t blame that for that but they were only praying that these holes in their comments would be enough to make them put two-and-two together on their own. V would have to say something to Seven, surely anything, at least enough to give him a tip-off if he knew that things were getting that bad. 

They weren’t sure they even had put together the clues.

They were a mouse… caught in a trap.

There was nothing to do but lay there until they knew their next course of action to escape from this place. There was no way to slip out from the window, either, they weren’t on a lower floor and the drop was too far to slip out without warning. This weight on MC’s chest was heavier than any brick. 

All the information they could have ever wanted to know in their other lives, and this was how strong they were in the end. It didn’t matter how much they knew or didn’t know about what was happening to them. 

There was no way to get out of this rabbit hole unless they could get the upper hand. 

MC swayed in and out of consciousness as they sat in their room, racking their memories for something that could help and hitting a brick wall every time. Time would slowly tick and chip away until they lost track of how long they had been sitting there. It wasn’t until there was a hard knock at the door that they came out of that haze.

They lifted their head and stared at the door as another row of knocks came right after in rapid-fire succession. Eyebrows furthered, MC stood up and called over to the door without getting too close to it, “It’s open. Come in.”

Then, it opened. Instead of Ray standing in the doorway, it was someone with Ray’s face but from the spark in his expression, it couldn’t have been him. MC wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt but it wasn’t safe to assume anything. 

Unknown had come out during the time that they had spent with V after a tumultuous amount of emotional torture. This would be no different, right? This person in front of them was an earlier version of the Unknown that they had come to know during their time in Rika’s apartment all those times. 

Unknown wasn’t like Ray. 

His emotions were channeled into anger, frustration, pain, and sheer viciousness. He had been known to play games with everyone around him for the sake of revenge and some of those lives that they had interacted with him had not ended well. There was no telling how he would react in a situation because even he had no clue what the storm was that he was walking into without care. 

He chuckled when he noted the fear and uncertainty that had flashed in MC’s eyes. The two of them spoke rather calmly at first as MC tried to assess his identity all the while he walked MC back into a corner like a hungry wild cat hunting its prey. He spat out Ray’s name like it was nothing but a pest. 

"You're not Ray," MC whispered, tentatively as they could not avoid his gaze. “So, who are you, and what happened?”

"Took you long enough," he replied. “No, I’m not that pathetic airhead. As for what happened to him, what don’t you look at yourself as the reason for that?”

MC blinked. They searched those green of his for an answer that they could not locate. What did he mean by that? “What… what are you talking about?” they asked. “I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

His hand collided with the wall next to their head. MC could do nothing but flinch as Saeran laughed at their terror and fear of him. “You’re the one that filled his head with lies about how he could leave this place and survive out there. You’re the reason that he’s gone. The Savior was informed of your little rendezvous and punished him for putting you before paradise. So, the cute little doll is their own reason for losing their prince.”

They shivered as Saeran leaned in close, so close that they could feel his breath against the nape of their neck. 

“Oh, but don’t worry,” Saeran taunted. “The Savior won’t throw you away just yet. She’s going to let me have my fun with you for a while. Ray isn’t ever going to come back to rescue you. He is gone forever now. It’s your fault. You belong to me now and I’m going to do whatever the hell I want to you, toy.”

Saeran tormented them for another half hour before he left them crying on the floor with their face in their hands. His degradation knew no bounds and the way he so casually laid the blame on MC for these events… it made them feel even more like a waste of space. 

They were too stunned with everything that had happened to even try to reason with him. 

Maybe Saeran was right, the darkened voice in the back of their head whispered. It was their fault for trying to convince Ray to leave that he had been tormented in the first place. Someone had heard them and punished him so great for it. 

A part of their rational thoughts told them that it was Rika’s fault. She was the one that punished Ray for daring to believe that he had inherent worth. He had worth, and he didn’t deserve to be punished for thinking for himself. 

Saeran… Unknown… They weren’t going to be easy to talk to, but MC dug their nails into the pads of their hands. They couldn’t just give up on him. No matter how much their heart ached in guilt and shame. It just hurt so much right now. 

MC stayed in that corner for the rest of the night as they tried to make sense of their feelings and fears. 

404

There was no way to know how Saeran was going to react to them each time he came for a visit to their room. One second he would be shouting at them and the next he would be caught in a web as if they had the upper hand on him from merely looking at him. He wasn’t quite like how they knew Unknown. 

But, that was to be expected, MC knew. 

This was two years before that was supposed to happen and this could have been the first time that he had emerged from the split in his shared trauma with Ray. Whatever they knew was out of the window when it came to him. It didn’t make them care any less about him, it was obvious that he was hurting just as much as Ray. 

Every instance that they could manage to squeeze it in, they would try to remind him that they were worried about him as they had been worried about Ray. He was hardly getting enough sleep and anything to eat. 

Rika was running him ragged and there was no way for him to back out of it. He took to fighting Seven and his attacks as if it were child’s play but it took hours for them to swipe back and forth at each other like this. 

One would push this way and the other would retaliate right afterward which caused a lot of server intermediate. MC was already having a hard enough time keeping up with the RFA, as their white lies grew trying to keep themselves safe. They figured that they were starting to paint a target on their back… 

But, if this is what it took to get V the time to help them, or Seven the time to step in, then it was worth it. 

Today was another day in Magenta, they thought as they held their breath, staring at the doorway where Saeran had just walked in to greet them. If they could just reason with him the way that they had reasoned with Ray, 

“Little toy, little toy…” Saeran beckoned them in a taunt. “Why are you hiding over there? Get over here before I decide to throw you into the basement just like every other piece of trash here that deserves to rot.”

MC stood up, and took the few steps forward that would bring them closer to him. “Saeran,” they greeted him, normally. 

“Good. You’re starting to learn your place after all this time, what a relief,” the smirk on his lips grew. He reached over and brushed his fingers against the fabric of their shirt and pulled them in closer to himself. “I like a toy that knows their place. It makes you slightly less useless. I bet you must be feeling pretty pathetic.”

“...” 

MC never fed into his prompts. It may have enraged him and made him act out against them but they knew that all he wanted was a reaction. If he got that, it would only prove that his strength was how he was meant to be in his eyes. That was the last thing that they wanted to do. He was already so hard to reach.

It didn’t need to be any harder.

Their game of back and forth would go around and around the room for a while. MC would ask him how he was doing and Saeran would turn that back on them tenfold until they were locked in a stalemate. 

“The Savior has made it clear, and I have made it clear with you, toy. You don’t matter at all to me, and the second I get bored, you’re going to be thrown away.” 

MC’s shoulders stiffened. “Who’s to say that that isn’t going to happen to you one of these days, Saeran?” they said quietly underneath their breath. 

Saeran’s grip on them grew tighter and tighter by the passing second. “Huh? What did you say? I am the strongest. I am the only person in this fucking place that does what she wants in the right way, and the rest of them are expendable.” 

The stress and the weight of trying to avoid feeding into Saeran’s comments were starting to build up on them and they found themselves speaking without hesitation, “Ray said the same thing. He thought that she would never throw him away. He did everything that she asked of him and more than that, and what did that get him?” 

Saeran let go of them rather suddenly, shoving MC to the ground where they didn’t move, they just looked up at him with that sadness in their eyes. There’s something in those words that have seemed to burn him. “...!” 

“That’s the thing with the Savior. She says everything that you want to hear and she will never let you think otherwise. That’s how she gets people to submit to her will the way that she does, Saeran. We both know what she’s capable of and what she’s done to these people, not just you, not just Ray, but everyone.” MC’s fingers dug into the carpet underneath them. 

“She said she loved Ray and then she threw him away the minute he decided that he might want to be actually happy. Who is to say that she won’t do the same thing to you? Saeran, if she was so willing to get rid of Ray this time, what is going to stop her from getting rid of you if you do something that she doesn’t want you to do?!”

MC pushed themselves up onto their feet as best as they could manage. 

Their body protested and cried out at them for trying to expend their energy after not eating much for the past day and a half. 

They ignored it as best they could and just kept talking, “I don’t want that to happen to you. I don’t want you to get hurt. I never wanted Ray to get hurt the way that he did. What’s going to stop Rika when she decides that you aren’t doing what she wants? You saw it, you saw how fast she got rid of Ray. You’re angry about that. You’re upset about what she did, I know.”

“I know you’re strong, I know you’re a capable person, and I know that you don’t have to do this to prove your worth to anyone. You already have worth. Rika is pushing you down this path because she knows that she can do it, and she wants to use your anger as a sword and a shield to get her dirty work done. She’s going to keep twisting you up until you lose your sense of self and the only thing that remains inside of your heart is spite.”

Their throat was starting to feel like a rock was sitting in it. Saeran was just staring at them with widened eyes at the display. 

MC felt tears, “She’s going to push you so hard that you become the thing that you fear the most of all, Saeran, and I don’t want to see you suffering like that ever again. I don’t think I could ever see you in that much pain ever again. I would rather die than see you in so much misery ever again. You were hurting so much, and you’re hurting right now. But, I would never change that first day when you lured me to Rika’s apartment.”

“I don’t want to go through this again. I want to protect you from that future. I don’t want you to lose yourself to your hatred, Saeran. You’re more than what hurt you! You don’t have to be like this to be happy, or to protect yourself! You don’t have to lash out and destroy everything and everyone to become happy! You don’t have to do this! You don’t have to be a hacker and you don’t have to use me to get revenge! Not here! Not in her apartment!” 

MC’s chest is heavy with breath as they realize the words that had just left their mouth. They just said far too much. The facts were laid on the table now and Saeran could see that they knew a fact that they should have never known. 

It wasn’t the fact that they had poured their heart out to him in this way, it was the notion that she had the gall to say it and—

And, that they had information that they shouldn’t have.

“Apartment…?” Saeran echoed their words. 

MC hurriedly shook their head, “I can’t. I can’t tell you. I’m sorry. I’ve said too much already. I care about you, Saeran, and I can’t tell you about how I know about that place. Mint Eye cannot win. If they win then I’ll… I’ll never be able to save you…” 

Saeran turned his anger onto them after that moment. He pushed them into the corner and did everything he could to squeeze the information out of them but MC clamped their mouth shut as tightly as they could. It didn’t matter what he said or how badly he tried to break them with his cruelty. 

MC refused to give him. 

This enraged Saeran even more than he had already been. He kicked them while they were done and left the room in a firestorm. The door slammed tight and it was locked just as tightly as it had been in the past. MC knew that they were in real danger at that moment, so they scurried across the room to find their phone. 

They open it up and turn on the messenger where they try to shoot a text message to Seven to tell him the secret that they swore they would never tell to V. Their texts are rapid-fire one after one instead of written all at once. They just told him to call V, to call V, and that the hacker was really his… 

MC’s message glitches before they can send the text that says, brother. Their connection with the RFA is shut off just as quickly as it had appeared to them.

404

The next thing that MC knew, hours later they were ripped from their room by Saeran as he dragged them to the Savior’s throne room. 

They pleaded with him and asked what he was doing but he wouldn’t tell them anything apart from a heated chuckle and the words, “The Savior heard about what you said to me, and she wants to see you in person. I think she’s going to finally teach you a lesson. Are you scared, MC? You should be. Think of how you could have avoided all of this if you had just told me what you knew.”

MC went silent. 

Saeran took it as a victory. 

It wasn’t but a few minutes later that they found themselves sitting in front of Rika. She looked as imposing as ever. Saeran sneered at the look of terror in their eyes before they looked down and shook it from their face as best as they could. 

Rika looked from MC back to Saeran, “Thank you, Saeran. That will be all.” she said, curtly. 

Saeran blinked, “But, Savior, you said that I could…” 

Her eyes narrowed and she shook her head at him. “I said, that will be all Saeran. I thank you for bringing me MC. I will take matters from here, dear. Be sure to get back to work as soon as you can, we are close to victory thanks to you, after all.” 

Saeran didn't say anything. He spared a look at MC before he left the room without another word to return to his work. MC couldn’t look back at him as their stomach did flips. It had been such a long time since they had been in the same room as this woman. 

She was somebody that was suffering but she was also someone causing suffering. She wasn’t anything to laugh at. Her power had no bounds and no limits. 

MC and Rika did nothing but sit at that table together for a few minutes in imposing silence. They could feel those green eyes on their body, and they knew that Rika wasn’t going to let them go anywhere until she heard what she wanted. She knew how to spin a room. 

“MC,” Rika broke the silence. “It’s a pleasure to be seeing you today.” 

“...” 

A glass of tea was lifted to her lips, “I realize that Saeran must have been quite the brute, but you know how he can be when he doesn’t get what he wants. His little tantrums can be exhausting. I understand that he backed you into quite the corner yesterday.”

MC lifted their head and stared at the woman across from themself. “Yeah,” they said. “No thanks to the elixir and your reeducation.” 

Rika chuckled. 

It was as if this was a game to her and not like the lives of actual people that they were talking about. “Oh, I see. We’re skipping the pleasantries. Alright, dear, if you want me to cut straight to the picture then I want you to answer my question. How is it that you know about the apartment? You weren’t a member of the RFA, and you knew absolutely nothing about those fools. So, how does a little toy with no knowledge of who I am, know that I have an apartment set aside in Seoul?” 

MC didn’t budge for Saeran and they weren’t about to give into Rika, either. They just took in a breath. Rika knew how to look like she was not a threat but her voice and her eyes betrayed that illusion of a kind-hearted woman.

She reached across the table and brushed her fingers against the top of MC’s hands in a soft motion, “For another matter, how did you know that that was one of the options that I gave to Ray when he was picking his little tester? He may have fallen under your web of lies but he would never go and reveal something like that to you.” 

They weren’t going to say a word, they had promised themselves that. No blame was going to fall on Ray or Saeran. 

“He didn’t,” MC replied, flatly. 

“Then, pray tell,” Rika leaned forward. “Who was it that told you about that place? Was it the traitor? Was it him?”

MC shook their head, “Nope.” 

Rika’s smile didn’t falter but that glower in her eyes grew. She went quiet this time and neither of them said anything once again as the silence grew. The intensity growing fast in that room could have cut through a log with one false swing of their sword. They sat like that for quite some time until Rika set down and finished her tea. 

She stood up and walked around the table. She gripped MC’s chin in her hands and stared down at them with a smile so wide that the Cheshire cat would have been jealous. “You’re going to tell me every secret that hides inside of your mind, dear. I’m going to get it out of you whether you like it or not. I don’t care how badly you scream or cry. My devil has no mercy.” 

The so-called Savior was true to her words and warnings. 

After that first meeting, MC was kept locked tight in their room and they weren’t allowed to talk to anyone, not even Saeran. 

The only thing to keep them company was the pink walls of their room and the glimmer of the outside world just beyond their fingertips. It was no different than how they had spent much of their time at this place, they were kept away from everyone and everything. 

A reminder that their power did nothing but bring them grief and strife. MC didn’t want to give in to their woes but it was so hard to keep this fight up. Even if they could manage to survive this what was it going to do for them? How were they going to be able to save Saeran if he wasn’t able to see the truth for himself? 

Saeran wasn’t allowed to see them. 

This was so Rika could get him to be pushed even further down the rabbit hole. MC could see what she was doing and they feared so greatly for him. It was what they were consumed with when their thoughts were all they had. 

Which was all the time because no one could come in or out of their room unless they were to bring MC to the Savior. 

Day after day, Rika would question MC until they were backed into a corner that they couldn’t escape. They would bite their tongue or say something bluntly but apart from that, they were struggling to keep their power to themself. Nobody should have had this weight of information and no one should have it for the sake of peace. 

If Rika knew what she could do to destroy the RFA piece by piece, there would be no way to turn back. She would have her victory cemented. 

It was no different today, MC had found themselves thrown unceremoniously on the floor in front of Rika once again. 

She had done just about everything that she could think of to make MC crack and cry. But, MC tried to keep themselves glued together for the sake of everyone else. If this was going to be the end of them then they would make sure that nobody would know how to destroy their friends. 

Rika had taken stock of everything that they had said in the chatroom to the RFA. She had tried to read between the lines and she had steadily discovered that MC knew a lot more about everyone then they should have. 

The future, Rika knew. 

“You don’t have to fight this, you don’t have to fight me, MC,” Rika said, cradling MC’s face in her hands. “We could rule them all together. We could destroy all of them together. This doesn’t have to be like this. You could do whatever you wanted to do and never worry about a thing. You have the future in your hands and together, we could make it beautiful. Oh, I know what this is about. I’ll let you keep Saeran, I know how fond you are of him.” 

MC didn’t tremble in her wake anymore but they did stare at her with such disdain. 

How could she think of everyone like toys to be traded away? They understood that she had been hurt badly in the past but this was no excuse for the grief she was causing now. She was not innocent and she needed to go down. 

Everyone was hurting… because she had been hurt and lashed out at the rest of the world. 

“I’ll never join you,” MC replied, voice stiff. “I’m never going to tell you what you want because what you want isn’t going to make anyone happy. It’s not going to make Saeran happy, it’s not going to make the RFA, and you know what, Rika? It’s not going to make you happy, either. This devil and monster you claim to be inside of you is just the person that you have become after bearing the brunt of so much pain.”

“There may have been a time in the past when you could have been saved, and where you could have been helped from hurting but that all became impossible after you hurt the people around you. You hurt everyone because you had been hurt by them. You thought that you could help people by doing this, and you’re just causing more misery by doing this. This won’t make you happy and this won’t fix what was broken.” 

MC stood up and looked at Rika with their hands pressed against the table. “And you know what? Despite all of this, V has never given up on you. Neither of you were perfect for each other and you made a lot of mistakes. He didn’t help you, and you didn’t help him! It would have saved a lot of grief for the rest of us if you two had just admitted that your love wasn’t healthy and separated before you hurt everyone!” 

Their chest was heaving up and down as their voice had elevated so loud that it echoed off of the walls. Rika was looking at them with widened green eyes. It was like she was shocked that MC had this kind of attitude and bite after they had been so quiet and not giving a word in edgewise up until this point. 

Once that shock had worn away from her body, she stood up and glared so hard at MC that it felt like her eyes were daggers. 

“How… how dare you… you pathetic… foul-mouthed mistake! How dare you speak to me in that tone about my life! You know nothing about me! You know nothing of my devil! You know nothing of who I am! You’re a liar! You’re a liar! You know nothing of true love and you know nothing about the real world!” 

MC could nothing but watch as Rika made her way across the room and snatched their forearm so tightly that her nails stuck into the skin. She dug harder and harder the more that MC tried to pull away from her. 

“You’re pathetic! You know nothing!! You were just trying to lie to me to save yourself and keep Saeran from throwing you away first. Well, I’m going to make your dream come true, you pitiful excuse for the fairytale daydream Ray had!” Rika spat with such venom that it felt like acid was going to burn their skin. 

“Rika… stop…! You can hurt me all you want, but you have to stop hurting Saeran! Stop hurting the RFA, stop hurting everyone!” MC pleaded with this woman. “You shouldn’t have ever hurt Saeran. He looked up to you! He cared about you and V! You can stop! He knew what pain you had experienced and you could have showered him in love! That’s how you help the world! You help those that are hurting! You don’t hurt them more!” 

Rika only laughed and laughed and laughed, “It hurts, doesn’t it? It hurts to feel true power, doesn’t it? That’s right. Cry. Scream. I’m going to give you what you wanted all along, MC. I’m going to make sure that you can never open that mouth ever again and that nobody remembers you. You’ll be nothing but dust on the wind when I am done with you. You will have wished that Saeran had killed you. I’ll throw away anyone that gets in my way, you, Saeran, V… all of them.” 

There was nothing in that room but the intention to kill. 

MC knew that Rika would not have hesitated to do that if it came down to it. They were lucky that some believers rushed in to pull her away from them. MC was sent back to their room once Rika had regained her composure. They were left a bloody mess of themselves as they were dragged away from that throne room. 

Unbeknownst to MC at that moment, Saeran had seen it all. He had seen MC bloody and ripped to pieces because they refused Rika’s will and darkness. Someone that had screamed for him, someone that wanted to protect him… someone that was willing to take pain for him. 

It felt like the last chain that was keeping his faith in Magenta… snapped. 

404

“The Savior has ordered that you be brought to the basement to await your trial.” 

MC was caught in the heat of the moment as they stared at the doorway where the believer stood waiting for them to take a chance on making a break for it. Their gaze flickered to the doorway and then to the window. There was no way that they were going to be able to get out of here right now and once they were in the basement, there was no more safety for them. 

This was it. 

This was going to be the end of them in another lifetime. They were a deer staring at the headlights of a car that was going to smash into them and they didn’t know what to do with themselves. Could they kick and scream and make enough of a ruckus to save themselves or were they going to get taken away despite a fight?

A million thoughts and scenarios ran through their head as they stared at their fate, but then, out of nowhere—

The lights shattered into pieces and the room was enveloped in darkness. It was late at night and there was nothing but a moonless night with thick cloud cover outside, the believer was confused and MC was also perplexed. 

A hand brushed against their shoulder and a husky voice hissed into their ear at a low volume so that only they could hear. “Don’t say a damn word. You’re lucky that I heard about this before they carted you off, MC. You would be food for the birds if it wasn’t for me. We’re getting the hell out of here.”

“S… Saeran?” A hand was thrust into MC’s hand when they opened their mouth. They gripped it tight and it squeezed back. 

His voice was stern, “Who the hell else would come for you, you’re mine, remember? Now, hold on, I’m going to get us out.”

Saeran led them into the hallway not long after that and it was just as dark as the room that they had been in. It had seemed as though that he had blown the lights to the entire compound or at the very least, he had cut them for this entire floor. They didn’t understand how he knew what was going to happen but they weren’t going to complain. 

They weaved in and out of the hallways until they reached an exit where the outside laid and Saeran urged them to keep up with him. The garden was even more of a maze from this side and the high walls of brush and grass shielded them from contact. 

It was dark enough that they should have been safe but there was no real safety here. 

The only sound that surrounded them was the sound of heavy breaths against the wind as they panted but refused to stop going. 

Saeran kept pushing them further into the forest until they had rounded the entire compound and alongside the rocky terrain until they had reached the end of their tracks, where one of the long dirt roads was. 

MC noted that there was a car parked along the road just hidden behind the trees. They glanced between it and Saeran. 

“Saeran, what happened?” 

Saeran didn’t look back at them. He stared ahead at the car as he fished the keys from out of his back pocket. “What’s it matter to you?” 

MC stared at him, incredulous. “What’s it matter to me? Saeran, you just saved me life. That’s why I care. I would be trapped in that dungeon if it weren’t for you right now. I don’t understand what happened back there. You owe me some explanation… I thought you believed in Mint Eye’s cause.” 

They had reached the car, he opened the door for them. MC stared back at him but he shook his head. “We have no time to do this. They’re going to come after us, if they haven’t already, and I don’t want to fight off a million guards right now.” 

MC took their seat inside of the car and Saeran walked to the other side and climbed in, cranking the engine. He took off just as quickly as he got in and they flew down the hilly roads and sharp paths. He knew where he was going but MC didn’t. 

He seemed to have planned this out to some extent. 

They were looking at him from the side; he was the Saeran that they had come to know, his eyes were tired and his hair was much messier than Ray’s was. He was still wearing his slick black suit but it looked very disheveled. He was a mess but there was a softness about him that felt brand new. 

Something had changed. 

“Saeran…” 

He didn’t look over at them, he kept his eyes trained on the road in front of them as they made their way down the mountains. “It’s not like I like you or anything, MC. You just… opened my eyes to something that I hadn’t noticed before. I was supposed to be the strongest member of Mint Eye, and I heard my Savior talk about me as if I was a pawn… a bargaining piece.” 

“As if I was as useless as… as they said Ray was. I couldn’t believe it,” Saeran turned his head for a moment to look at them. “But, then you surprised me. I tortured you for days and I treated you like shit. Yet, in spite of that, you told her that she should torture you instead of torturing me anymore.” 

MC’s voice caught in their throat as they opened their mouth to look at Saeran. They weren’t sure what to say. 

Saeran continued, “It wasn't a pity when you said that. Normally, when I hear someone say something like that to me, it’s out of pity. But, you weren’t pitying me. You kept telling Ray over and over again that you saw his worth, and you kept trying to feed me that shit too. I didn’t know that you actually meant it...“ 

His eyes turned back to the road but his right hand reached over to them across the dash and brushed against the makeshift band aid that they had created after cleaning their wound by ripping up an old shirt.

It had stung a lot and they weren’t sure if it was going to leave a lasting mark or not. It hadn’t occurred to them that it could, since they had been living life on repeat for so long. 

“You were willing to actually jump in front of me without my being in the room to protect me, not just Ray, when she said she would throw me away, and after I realized that… the Savior was going to hurt you after she promised me that I could do whatever I wanted with you… that you were right. She doesn’t see me as the strongest. She saw me as a pawn.” 

There’s a tiny croak in the back of his throat and it’s the first time that they had seen him have any emotion besides rage and pain. It seems like he may cry for the first time. If he does, MC wasn’t going to say anything about it. 

They took his hand in their own. 

“I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. I don’t know where the hell I’m going. I just know that I can’t fucking stay in that place anymore after learning that she saw me as trash. You’re the only person that ever saw worth in me… or in Ray… or whoever the fuck we are,” he said, and that was when his voice cracked. “All I know is, I had to get you out of there before the only person that believed in my power was destroyed.” 

MC didn’t stop looking at him. “You were always a strong person, Saeran. Ray, too, if he’s still around to hear this. You both survived through so much pain and strife despite how much it hurt you. You don’t have to prove your strength to me, or to anyone else. You’re already strong on your own. If someone doesn’t see that… then they never really saw you.” 

There was a bitter laugh that escaped from the back of Saeran’s throat, and it sounded like he was just learning how to do it. “I don’t know what it is about you, MC. I don’t fucking know how or why you do this to me but I like the way it feels when I’m with you. I know what I said before and I know what I did. I know I fucked up, and I know you have every right to be pissed with me.” 

“I’m not,” MC said, quietly. 

“You’re a saint, you know that?” Saeran retorted. 

“No, I’m not,” MC shook their head. “I just have faith in you. I know that you can be a good person, Saeran, you never were a bad person. You were just hurt so much… it wasn’t fair and it was not right.”

“I can’t promise I’m going to do good, or that I’ll get things right,” He said, quietly. “Ray won’t hurt you either.”

“I know,” MC whispered. “But, I’m going to be with you no matter what happens from now on, Saeran… and Ray too. I’ll help you if you’ll let me do it.” 

Saeran hesitated, “Even… Even if I’m not Ray?” 

“I care about you, Saeran. I care about Ray, as well. I care about the both of you the same way and it doesn’t matter to me who I’m speaking with at the moment. I will care for you no matter what. As long as you will let me do it. I wouldn’t be safe right now if it weren’t for you, Saeran, Ray… thank you.” MC looked down at their lap. 

“No,” Saeran said as the clouds began to clear up and the light began to illuminate the car they were in. “Thank you… ugh, those words taste disgusting, I’m sorry. You’re the one that helped me.” 

It became quiet again as they settled into this new moment. This was so unlike any of the other timelines that MC had lived in. It wasn’t perfect by any means but it felt like something had really changed this time. 

The warmth of Saeran’s hand was warmer and brighter than any of the other nights where they felt like their time was coming to an end. 

Maybe… maybe this would be the final time they lived through this repeating universe? Could this be the last time that they lived another eleven days? Something in their chest had hoped that maybe this time would be the last time. 

However, MC thought with a bittersweet smile as they stared out of the window of the car at the ever-changing skyline of trees and mountains, even if this wasn’t the last time that they lived these eleven days—

They would rest a lot easier knowing that they had been able to save Saeran from his fate at that place. 

This time, MC felt okay that the sun was rising on the horizon for another day to come. No matter what happened, they felt at peace with themselves. 


End file.
